Boston-bred comic Sam Jay returns to the Wilbur Theater.
For Dorchester native Sam Jay (@samjaycomic), Boston was both a thoroughfare and a roadblock to her career. She got her start in Dorchester at the Carver Den inside Grove Hall, and although the audience booed, fellow comics encouraged her to continue. She became well-known on the local comedy scene but began hitting barriers to entry built by the very community that had first led her to the mics. “There was a weird gatekeeping in Boston—the city loves its white boys—it’s always going to prop that to the top.” So she paved her road out of Boston, beginning on the Chinatown bus to New York City. Her freeway to success eventually took her to Los Angeles where she did the Just For Laughs: New Faces showcase and caught the attention of a scout from Saturday Night Live. Jay became the first Black lesbian writer in the show’s history.
She has since cemented her status as a stand-up comic, actor and Emmy-nominated writer with two shows on HBO, Pause With Sam Jay and Sam Jay: Salute Me or Shoot Me. She filmed a Netix special Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning, starred in the hit comedy You People alongside Jonah Hill, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy, and the Peacock series Bust Down which she co-created. This spring she performed a buzz-worthy set at Netflix’s The Roast of Tom Brady and was invited to Brady’s Hall of Fame induction this past June, celebrating one of Boston’s most cherished white boys.
Jay returns to Boston this month to perform at the Wilbur theater. “I’m excited. I try not to overthink it or put any unnecessary pressure on it or myself. But it’s home, it’s special.”
Photography by: COURTESY OF HBO
